HOPE2KENYA 2011

Steve Dreany, Ada Dreany, Sandy Foster and Kathy Hallett,

Packed to go!

Before we left North Bay to catch our plane in Toronto we went to a Rotary meeting since Steve

and I are both members.  The club had a Hope2Kenya cake for us as a sendoff for this trip.

We arrived in Eldoret after long flights and an internal flight from Nairobi. 

We were picked by Mark, and some staff from Transformed International.

Kathy is taking the photo.. 

We were taken to the Transformed International Compound in Kitale, where we again stayed. 

Daniel Lipparelli and his staff did an amazing job organizing things so we could accomplish

everything that we needed to do. When we arrived in Kitale we unpacked.  We brought

as much as we could to hand out to widows, teachers and children.

Daniel, from Transformed International, took the team to meet Daniel Juma.  He is one of my favourite Kenyans.  He is disabled and his family kept him hidden as a child until a missionary found this out and took Daniel and educated him through elementary, secondary, and Bible College.  Daniel married and has 7 of his own children but he wanted to give back so he has taken into his home 22 other children that he feeds and educates.  He is truly an amazing man.

Daniel Juma                   Some of Daniel Juma’s children.

Each year that Sandy has gone to Kenya, along with the help of Don and Cathy McCallum

of North Bay, we have personally helped support a small running team. 

This year they had a 10km race and Sandy and the McCallum's provided prizes

for the winners.  Although they were not large amounts of money to us, the first

prize was $20.00 which is equivalent to a week's salary.

Blind runner tied to his cousin's hand.  They are hoping to qualify for the

paraOlympics in England.  The runner on the left is deaf. All three did extremely well.

The race begins                                        Running hard to get in first.

The runners are so fast that all of them were in under 36.32 minutes.

The young man that Sandy has become friends with over the years is Sammy Sang. 

He organizes the running team and the race.  He runs himself, but mostly coaches.

Sammy with the team members

Sammy’s sister Francescar is now in Nursing School and doing very well.  We heard that his mom was

not doing well so we went to see her at the market stall that she operates and she has been having

trouble with her knee and not feeling well.  She went to the local government hospital and they did

little to alleviate her pain, so Sandy had Sammy take her to a private clinic.  For $45.00 she had a shot

of cortisone and was given medication and in a few days was doing very well.

Ada with Sammy’s mom Salome  at her market stall.

The next day was food packing day for the two large distributions that we do in the

Kitale area.  One distribution is in Maili Saba and the other is in Shimo Le Tewo slums. 

Only widows and very vulnerable women were given food.  The cost of food has increased

so much in Kenya that many people can’t even afford the very necessities to feed their families. 

We also handed out the milk bag mats and many blankets that we purchased in Kitale.

There were so many women waiting at both places and some emotional times for both the team members

and the women receiving the food.  We have to thank all those who donated to Hope2Kenya because

that allowed us to do so many food distributions.  We also gave food to two schools in the local areas

where we did the distributions.  Food in these two areas was delivered to over 300 women and that

would include over 2000 children.

This is always difficult each year because I realize just how much we have at home.  Just think of what

we scrape off our dinner plates into the garbage, or the leftovers we often throw out. 

With this in mind hope2Kena has realized that we can’t keep feeding people.  Eric Mangala is the

new country director for Transformed International and has recently graduated with an

MA.  He offered to do a training program for 40 women who are vulnerable and usually are

in our food distribution.  He did an excellent job teaching them to become self-sustaining

using the skills that many of them have.  We funded the program, provided lunch for them

each day and when they completed the program we gave them a bag of “goodies” that

we brought with us plus 500 Kenya shillings.  This is about $5.50 in Canadian funds but

is a week’s wages for many.  Eric will continue to follow up with these folks and

hopefully we can support several of these programs each year.

Ada Dreany is a nurse and was able to bring some medical supplies with her.  There is a retired nurse

in Shimo Le Tewa slums who offers a small clinic for free.  Ada was able to give her some

medical supplies to replenish her small amount of medication.

Veronica Home, our orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS is complete and being run by TI.

  It was wonderful to see the home full of active children and run by a fabulous couple. 

We had a great time playing with the children and handing out small gifts to them.  Ada

also showed them how to brush their teeth, and thanks to the Canadore Dental Hygiene

students, was able to give them each a toothbrush and toothpaste plus games made by

the students that will help them keep their teeth in good repair.

The Neema Vocational School is almost complete and Hope2Kenya has paid for

over half the construction plus the land.  We purchased the equipment that will

go into the school once it is complete.

The next phase will be to build a Home to house the At Risk and Street girls that will attend

this school. These young women often do not know how to read or write because they never

had the opportunity to go to school.  The first group of girls has graduated and they are

now self-sufficient.  Four of the girls came to visit the team when we were there

and we were able to give them new outfits which they appreciated.

The team again visited the InStep Baby Home where our friends Meredith and Sean now

work.  We spent our time there just “loving on the  kids.”  They love to be held and cuddled

and we certainly were able to do this.  Everyone enjoyed this visit including Steve who

rolled on the mat with several little ones.  InStep now houses 105 children.  We left

them with sweaters, bubbles and other fun stuff to enjoy another day. 

We returned to Sirende School again this year.  Kathy did some teacher training with the

primary classes and Ada again did her teeth cleaning exercise.  We helped complete a

new 4 room building but the children were bringing in cow dung to put on the floor to help

keep the dust down so we gave the school more funds to finish cementing the floor and

walls and completing the building.   This will give them a cleaner environment.   We

also handed out bags to each teacher with teaching aids for them to use and donated

school supplies to the school.  We only stayed for ½ day and the staff was very disappointed. 

Next year we will have to spend a complete day with them. 

The Ebenezer Women’ Co-operative in Maili Saba is doing well.  We purchased a new knitting

machine for them this year.  We gave them an order for 60 school uniforms which will benefit

them as well as the children who will now be able to attend school.  This group has become

self-sustaining and we are very proud of what they have accomplished.

We visited St. Anthony’s School for the Deaf and purchased some new equipment that is

needed for the school.  It would be nice to help them set up a Craft Co-operative since

once the girls  and boys get too old for the vocational shop, they are sent back to their

villages where there is no work.  Many of them do beautiful craft work that can

be sold and it might be something that hope2kenya could assist them with.

We then went on to the Kakamega area.  This was quite a drive but we went with

Alistair Amendi, a young man that Sandy has worked with over the last several years. 

He had mentioned that his village needed a school.  A couple of years ago two small girls

were beaten and raped on their 8 km walk to school.  Two teachers from Alistair’s

village of Kasavai set up a school in a local church and then put up a tent beside it

for the children to go to school.  Last year we bought land and we were now going to

see the land and meet with the school council to see how we could help.

We stayed with Alistair’s aunt and uncle in a mud/cement house with no electricity, running

water or indoor plumbing.  We slept under mosquito nets and ate what the villagers ate. 

We also did a food distribution in the village. The next morning we went and looked at the

land we had purchased and then went to the church where school is being held.  We had a

wonderful experience where this village is willing to work hard to make this school a

reality.  It will hold 8 classrooms, a library, staff room and a space for community work. 

We left funds with Alistair to get the preliminary work done.  They insisted we plant a tree

on the property that will grow big and strong just as the school will become big and strong.

  The team moved to Nairobi where we did a huge food distribution past Ngong to the Maasai

women that we work with.  This area has seen terrible drought and many were going hungry.  We

had enough funds to again feed many.  Enough food was purchased to do a large distribution

while we were there and then another one a few weeks later.  We also filled the water tanks

that are built there twice.  The water is trucked in from Nairobi and is desperately needed for

drinking. The area is so dry and the women were so appreciative for the help.

We have two Baby Schools (ages 3-7) in the slums of Kibera and we purchased food and school

supplies for both schools.  The children just love to see us coming because they know we always bring

them a treat.  I think we purchased over a thousand suckers this year that we handed out to children

over the time we were in Kenya.

We spent just a short time at St. Aloysius High School and brought them some of the CD’s that we

had made from their choir recordings.  They have also made a DVD that we purchased to sell here

and some of their choir members performed for us.

With the help of the Rotary Club of North Bay-Nipissing, the Rotary Club of North Bay and

F.J. McElligott High School in Mattawa, Ont. We were able to purchase computers to set up a

computer lab for a youth program in Kibera.   We carried over 5 lap tops and we were able to

purchase 5 desk top computers in Nairobi..  The teacher of the group teaches two classes per day

and has the students for 6 months.  This helps them gain enough computer knowledge to go ahead

in obtaining jobs.  This group was delighted with what they received and when Sandy went back to

check up on them there were over 20 students crammed into the classroom just to see the new

machines.  This will truly make a difference in the lives of these young people.

I know that we cannot change the world but we can have an impact on lives.

People often ask me why I go and my answer is that the more blessed we are,

the bigger our responsibility is to help others.